Sweet 16

It's really hard to believe that Shelby is 16. Wow. She had a very low key birthday and was able to spend it with a friend. The night before we got together for some Chinese food at Stacy's house. The kids played and we all had cake!

Confessions of a Momma-razzi

Okay, so admitting it makes me feel less guilty but not so much less crazy. I mean, just by looking at the blog you know that I am both a crazy picture taker, and I'm indecisive which leads me to think that too many of my shots are post-worthy, so imagine me trying to put a damn photo book together! Well, I do it and I spend months in front of this very computer choosing layouts and backgrounds and believe it or not, I do edit! I have just purchased our super big 2011 photo book and here are it's stats...

Total # of pictures taken this year: 4,964
Total # of pictures used in 2011 book: 1,214
Total # of pages in 2011 photo book: 139
(well that one is a little embarrassing, but I tried to do less cramming and space things out a bit more)
Total % of pictures used vs pictures taken: 4.1% (see, that should at least be somewhat impressive, no?!)


But here, here is where I really look good (okay, better, do I look better at least?)

Last year these were the stats:
Total # of pictures taken in 2010: 6,995
Total % of pictures used in book: 15%

I mean, come on...that is a big improvement on my psychosis right, 2,000 FEWER pictures taken this year is an accomplishment.

I should stop apologizing for who I am, but even I get embarrassed by myself sometimes...I'm a sick individual who loves to document everything, and incidentally managed to use yet another camera until it's dead, which is right about now. The last few months have been a little hit and miss with fuzzy shots. Apparently February is the month to buy electronics because there is a giant techie convention in January so all of last year's models are on sale...so maybe we'll invest in another model soon. In the end, I can't wait to see my newest creation and it should arrive within the week, so hopefully most of you can check it out for yourselves soon!

Snow Day??

There has been talk this week of snow. Sophia caught wind of such talk and has been non stop asking about it. Of course, not knowing whether the weather man will be accurate or not, we didn't have much to tell her. Regardless, last night she wore her snowman nightgown to bed to inspire Mother Nature to deliver. I was awakened this morning with Sophia bounding into my bedroom excitedly yelling, Mommy! It snowed, it snowed, it SNOWED! This is what it looked like outside....

Um, yeah...quite a performance for such a lackluster snowfall, right?! Here's how the subsequent conversations went...

Sophia: Mommy! Can we go out and build a snowman?

Me: Ummm, Sophia, there's really not enough snow for that.

Sophia: Yes there is, Mommy.

Me: Well, not really Soph, sorry to disappoint you.

Sophia: Well, my brother and I will have a snowball fight then, okay?

Me: Sorry, Kid, there's not enough snow for that either.

Sophia: Well I will just make really tiny snowballs.

Me: Okay (exasperation setting in)

Sophia: Mommy, there's always enough snow to make snow angels anyway, so let's go outside. Okay?!

Me: Okay, Sophia, let's bundle up.

Sophia: Mommy? Can we go sledding too?

Me: insert banging head against wall

SNOW!!!
Really? We came out for this?

Inspired by Sophia's constant insistence, Leo tries to make a snowball


Sure that he's surely doing it wrong, Sophia gives it a try

resigned to sliding

and swinging

Leo entertained himself with brushing snow off the toy bin

Okay, this is maybe my new favorite picture! Precious!

Okay, so I know I'm new to this video thing, but I don't understand why it's sideways?? The other one wasn't, was it?? Ugh. This is the video of their "snowball fight". You can see that Sophia is doing most of the fighting and Leo is oblivious. I will try and load the other video (the best one!) of Sophia singing her winter song, but it's giving me issues!

Game Day

We made New Year's Day a game day. After picking up the kids they wanted to play games and we are always up for that. We played Crazy 8s, The Cupcake Game, and candy match. After naps we headed to bowl! Bama was up for bowling too so she joined us for a game and then some dinner. It was a good way to ring in the new year!

New Year's Eve

and still more presents...

traditional waffle brunch take 1

take 2...Leo couldn't wait for another take before he needed to eat!

I thought this was just too darn cute

last family picture of the year!

The littles went to party at Aunt Annie's house that night!

Traditionally Mom does Christmas brunch every year but this year it just didn't work out...so we moved it to New Year's Eve and it was perfect! The waffles were yummy and it was a relaxing morning had by all. Later that afternoon Aunt Annie volunteered to watch the munchkins and we had a very raucous night of going to the movies. ;) Stacy and Mer joined us to see Sherlock Holmes and we were home and in bed by 11. We stayed awake long enough to see the ball drop and to see the life form previously known as Dick Clark and then lights out! It was nice to sleep in the next morning too!

Bowling Bonanaza!

Yay, Me!

Look, my ball!
Leo is explaining to Luca the finer points of bowling

like moths to a flame, little hands to the ball machine

Massimo supervises while Juan gets his ball

Andres is guarding the remaining balls while Soph helps Leo with his

Lisa giving some good tips to Isaac

Leo gave up on bowling and hung out with his buddy, Alexander

I got a coupon for 10 free games of bowling, so naturally I invited 10 friends! It was a little chaotic but fun. A few of the friends had never bowled before and everyone seemed to have a good time. This was a good warm up for us since we seem to have made bowling on New Year's Day a Hirner Family tradition, so more bowling pics coming soon!

Walking the Dogs

Sophia and her girl, Fluffy

Sophia got this Fur Real dog from Santa Claus and she is so in love with her. In her pitch to me when she originally saw it and wanted me to buy it for her, she threw in the fact that we could walk our dogs together and then everyone would get good exercise. Who can resist that logic?! So, since she opened her she's been begging for a walk. Me, knowing how much patience would be required for this activity, has been avoiding it! ;) Anyway, I finally caved. First off, poor Walter. He was all kinds of jazzed for a walk that just turned into walking a few steps, stopping. Walking a few steps, stopping. Going backwards a lot of steps, helping to fix Fluffy, going forward a little bit more and then stopping again. This went on for a solid hour. I should get an award.

Sophia was very proud of herself however and Fluffy certainly did get a lot of exercise! All in all, it's a pretty cute toy, I just wish it walked better. It does an okay job inside, but the roughness of the sidewalks drove her off the edge every few feet.